IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/22435.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

CEO Personality and Firm Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Ian D. Gow
  • Steven N. Kaplan
  • David F. Larcker
  • Anastasia A. Zakolyukina

Abstract

Based on two samples of high quality personality data for chief executive officers (CEOs), we use linguistic features extracted from conferences calls and statistical learning techniques to develop a measure of CEO personality in terms of the Big Five traits: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. These personality measures have strong out-of-sample predictive performance and are stable over time. Our measures of the Big Five personality traits are associated with financing choices, investment choices and firm operating performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian D. Gow & Steven N. Kaplan & David F. Larcker & Anastasia A. Zakolyukina, 2016. "CEO Personality and Firm Policies," NBER Working Papers 22435, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22435
    Note: CF LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w22435.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David F. Larcker & Anastasia A. Zakolyukina, 2012. "Detecting Deceptive Discussions in Conference Calls," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 495-540, May.
    2. Randolph B. Cohen & Christopher Polk & Tuomo Vuolteenaho, 2003. "The Value Spread," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 609-641, April.
    3. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4, June.
    4. Thomas Dohmen & Armin Falk & David Huffman & Uwe Sunde, 2010. "Are Risk Aversion and Impatience Related to Cognitive Ability?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1238-1260, June.
    5. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, 2005. "CEO Overconfidence and Corporate Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2661-2700, December.
    6. Michael Daly & Liam Delaney & Colm P. Harmon, 2009. "Psychological and Biological Foundations of Time Preference," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 659-669, 04-05.
    7. Anand M. Goel & Anjan V. Thakor, 2008. "Overconfidence, CEO Selection, and Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2737-2784, December.
    8. Renée B. Adams & Heitor Almeida & Daniel Ferreira, 2005. "Powerful CEOs and Their Impact on Corporate Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1403-1432.
    9. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    10. Almlund, Mathilde & Duckworth, Angela Lee & Heckman, James & Kautz, Tim, 2011. "Personality Psychology and Economics," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-181, Elsevier.
    11. Simon Gervais & J. B. Heaton & Terrance Odean, 2011. "Overconfidence, Compensation Contracts, and Capital Budgeting," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1735-1777, October.
    12. Sucheta Nadkarni & V. K. Narayanan, 2007. "Strategic schemas, strategic flexibility, and firm performance: the moderating role of industry clockspeed," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 243-270, March.
    13. Jessen L. Hobson & William J. Mayew & Mohan Venkatachalam, 2012. "Analyzing Speech to Detect Financial Misreporting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 349-392, May.
    14. Steven W. Floyd & Bill Wooldridge, 1997. "Middle Management’s Strategic Influence and Organizational Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 465-485, May.
    15. Stewart C. Myers, 2001. "Capital Structure," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 81-102, Spring.
    16. Feng Li, 2012. "Discussion of Analyzing Speech to Detect Financial Misreporting," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 393-400, May.
    17. Benmelech, Efraim & Frydman, Carola, 2015. "Military CEOs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 43-59.
    18. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Puri, Manju, 2013. "Managerial attitudes and corporate actions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 103-121.
    19. Feng Li, 2010. "The Information Content of Forward‐Looking Statements in Corporate Filings—A Naïve Bayesian Machine Learning Approach," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 1049-1102, December.
    20. Lex Borghans & Bart H. H. Golsteyn & James J. Heckman & Huub Meijers, 2009. "Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity Aversion," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 649-658, 04-05.
    21. J B Heaton, 2002. "Managerial Optimism and Corporate Finance," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 31(2), Summer.
    22. David Hirshleifer & Angie Low & Siew Hong Teoh, 2012. "Are Overconfident CEOs Better Innovators?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(4), pages 1457-1498, August.
    23. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    24. Steven N. Kaplan & Mark M. Klebanov & Morten Sorensen, 2012. "Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(3), pages 973-1007, June.
    25. Randolph B. Cohen & Christopher Polk & Tuomo Vuolteenaho, 2003. "The Value Spread," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(2), pages 609-642, April.
    26. Hackbarth, Dirk, 2009. "Determinants of corporate borrowing: A behavioral perspective," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 389-411, September.
    27. Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), 2011. "Handbook of the Economics of Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 3, number 3, June.
    28. Werner Antweiler & Murray Z. Frank, 2004. "Is All That Talk Just Noise? The Information Content of Internet Stock Message Boards," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1259-1294, June.
    29. Lex Borghans & Bart H.H. Golsteyn & James J. Heckman & Huub Meijers, 2009. "Gender Differences in Risk Aversion and Ambiguity," Working Papers 200903, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    30. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    31. H Andrew Schwartz & Johannes C Eichstaedt & Margaret L Kern & Lukasz Dziurzynski & Stephanie M Ramones & Megha Agrawal & Achal Shah & Michal Kosinski & David Stillwell & Martin E P Seligman & Lyle H U, 2013. "Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-16, September.
    32. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate & Jon Yan, 2011. "Overconfidence and Early‐Life Experiences: The Effect of Managerial Traits on Corporate Financial Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1687-1733, October.
    33. Balakrishnan, Ramji & Qiu, Xin Ying & Srinivasan, Padmini, 2010. "On the predictive ability of narrative disclosures in annual reports," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 202(3), pages 789-801, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Licht, Amir N. & Adams, Renee B., 2020. "Shareholders and Stakeholders around the World: The Role of Values, Culture, and Law in Directors' Decisions," LawFin Working Paper Series 13, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).
    2. Kieschnick, Robert & Moussawi, Rabih, 2018. "Firm age, corporate governance, and capital structure choices," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 597-614.
    3. Bradley E. Hendricks & Mark Lang & Kenneth Merkley, 2022. "Through the eyes of the founder: CEO characteristics and firms’ regulatory filings," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3-4), pages 383-422, March.
    4. Jun Xie & Wataru Nozawa & Shunsuke Managi, 2023. "The nexus of top executives’ attributes, firm strategies, and outcomes: Large firms versus SMEs," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Bäumer, Marcus, 2020. "What matters to investment professionals in decision making? The role of soft factors in stock selection," EIKV-Schriftenreihe zum Wissens- und Wertemanagement, European Institute for Knowledge & Value Management (EIKV), Luxembourg, volume 44, number 44.
    6. Hoang, Daniel & Wiegratz, Kevin, 2022. "Machine learning methods in finance: Recent applications and prospects," Working Paper Series in Economics 158, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    7. Ron Tidhar & Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, 2020. "Get rich or die trying… finding revenue model fit using machine learning and multiple cases," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(7), pages 1245-1273, July.
    8. Zeckhauser, Richard, 2017. "Straight Talkers and Vague Talkers: The Effects of Managerial Style in Earnings Conference Calls," Working Paper Series rwp17-017, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    9. Evangelos Mourelatos & Nicholas Giannakopoulos & Manolis Tzagarakis, 2022. "Personality traits and performance in online labour markets," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(3), pages 468-484, February.
    10. Bennouri, Moez & Chtioui, Tawhid & Nagati, Haithem & Nekhili, Mehdi, 2018. "Female board directorship and firm performance: What really matters?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 267-291.
    11. OKUBO Toshihiro & Alexander F. WAGNER & YAMADA Kazuo, 2017. "Does Foreign Ownership Explain Company Export and Innovation Decisions? Evidence from Japan," Discussion papers 17099, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    12. Keloharju, Matti & Knüpfer, Samuli & Tåg, Joacim, 2020. "CEO Health," Working Paper Series 1326, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 30 May 2022.
    13. Gianpaolo Parise & Kim Peijnenburg, 2017. "Understanding the determinants of financial outcomes and choices: the role of noncognitive abilities," BIS Working Papers 640, Bank for International Settlements.
    14. Karel Hrazdil & Jiri Novak & Rafael Rogo & Christine Wiedman & Ray Zhang, 2020. "Measuring executive personality using machine‐learning algorithms: A new approach and audit fee‐based validation tests," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3-4), pages 519-544, March.
    15. Theophilus Lartey & Kwabena Kesse & Albert Danso, 2020. "Ceo Extraversion And Capital Structure Decisions: The Role Of Firm Dynamics, Product Market Competition, And Financial Crisis," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 43(4), pages 847-893, December.
    16. Vijay S. Sampath & Arthur J. O’Connor & Calvester Legister, 2022. "Moral leadership and investor attention: An empirical assessment of the potus’s tweets on firms’ market returns," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 881-910, April.
    17. Jochen Becker & Josip Medjedovic & Christoph Merkle, 2019. "The Effect of CEO Extraversion on Analyst Forecasts: Stereotypes and Similarity Bias," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 54(1), pages 133-164, February.
    18. Steven N. Kaplan & Morten Sorensen, 2017. "Are CEOs Different? Characteristics of Top Managers," NBER Working Papers 23832, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Otto, Clemens A., 2014. "CEO optimism and incentive compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(2), pages 366-404.
    2. Ulrike Malmendier & Vincenzo Pezone & Hui Zheng, 2023. "Managerial Duties and Managerial Biases," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3174-3201, June.
    3. Malmendier, Ulrike M. & Pezone, Vincenzo & Zheng, Hui, 2020. "Managerial Duties and Managerial Biases," CEPR Discussion Papers 14929, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Cook, Douglas O. & Chowdhury, Jaideep & Zhang, Weiwei, 2023. "Director optimism and CEO equity compensation," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 143-162.
    5. Bharati, Rakesh & Doellman, Thomas & Fu, Xudong, 2016. "CEO confidence and stock returns," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 89-110.
    6. Karel Hrazdil & Jiri Novak & Rafael Rogo & Christine Wiedman & Ray Zhang, 2020. "Measuring executive personality using machine‐learning algorithms: A new approach and audit fee‐based validation tests," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3-4), pages 519-544, March.
    7. Deshmukh, Sanjay & Goel, Anand M. & Howe, Keith M., 2021. "Do CEO beliefs affect corporate cash holdings?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Lee, Jin-Ping & Lin, Edward M.H. & Lin, James Juichia & Zhao, Yang, 2020. "Bank systemic risk and CEO overconfidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    9. Kaplan, Steven N. & Sørensen, Morten & Zakolyukina, Anastasia A., 2022. "What is CEO overconfidence? Evidence from executive assessments," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 409-425.
    10. Mao-Wei Hung & Wen-Hsin Tsai, 2020. "Managerial optimism, CEO retention, and corporate performance: evidence from bankruptcy-filing firms," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 44(3), pages 506-527, July.
    11. Danso, Albert & Lartey, Theophilus & Amankwah-Amoah, Joseph & Adomako, Samuel & Lu, Qinye & Uddin, Moshfique, 2019. "Market sentiment and firm investment decision-making," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Li, Si & Perez, M. Fabricio, 2021. "The evolution of pay premiums for managerial attributes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    13. Ali Ataullah & Andrew Vivian & Bin Xu, 2018. "Optimistic Disclosure Tone and Conservative Debt Policy," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 54(4), pages 445-484, December.
    14. Chen, Sheng-Syan & Peng, Shu-Cing & Yeh, Chia-Wei, 2023. "Does import competition from China discipline overconfident CEOs in U.S. firms?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 277-297.
    15. Adams, Renée & Keloharju, Matti & Knüpfer, Samuli, 2018. "Are CEOs born leaders? Lessons from traits of a million individuals," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 392-408.
    16. Aktas, Nihat & Louca, Christodoulos & Petmezas, Dimitris, 2019. "CEO overconfidence and the value of corporate cash holdings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 85-106.
    17. Sen, Rik & Tumarkin, Robert, 2015. "Stocking up: Executive optimism, option exercise, and share retention," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(2), pages 399-430.
    18. Lin Li & Wilson H. S. Tong, 2022. "Who shall succeed? An examination of manager overconfidence and CEO selection," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(9-10), pages 1736-1783, October.
    19. Tim R. Adam & Valentin Burg & Tobias Scheinert & Daniel Streitz, 2020. "Managerial Biases and Debt Contract Design: The Case of Syndicated Loans," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(1), pages 352-375, January.
    20. Adam, Tim R. & Burg, Valentin & Scheinert, Tobias & Streitz, Daniel, 2014. "Managerial Optimism and Debt Contract Design: The Case of Syndicated Loans," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 475, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22435. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.